All about crocheting, sewing, and knitting.

My finals are just around the corner, but I thought I would share some of the things I’ve been working on before I go off to study.

In particular: loom knitting!

I’m honestly not sure how I came to start loom knitting (probably ‘cuz of youtube videos). It just looked so cool and I wanted to see what all the hallabulloo was all about. Sooooo, I bought myself a set of circular looms in different sizes and colors and started loomin’! :)

This is one of my finished loom projects!

I’m very happy with the results of this scarf. In fact, I was so pleased, I gave it off in charity to the homeless via Muslims Giving Back. The pattern I used is this one. It looks a bit complicated to do, but trust me it’s really not. Especially once you get the hang of moving the yarn across the pegs instead of needles.

This is how the scarf looked in progress. Just starting the design
This is a closeup of the design. :)
For loom knitting, you should use thick yarn, but since I didn’t have any, I used 3 yarn balls together. Hence, the scarf is super warm!

* Open up your butterfly abaya so that the front (with the deeper neckline) is facing you. Now measure from the shoulder down 15″ -16″ (where your waist is). Make a 3 inch line. Divide your waist measurement by 2. Let’s say this is also 15″. So measure from the center of your 3″ line across 15″ to your other side where you will again mark 3″. These 3″ lines will be your belt holes.

*Make a square on another piece of fabric. This square should be bigger than 3″ all around since you will be hemming the edges of this. After doing this, make a narrow rectangle 3″ long like the one above. Do this again to get 2 of these pieces in total.

*For your front belt cut a 6″ wide piece that is 15″(or ur half wasit msrmt) long. We will be folding this in half and sewing it.

**For your back belt, cut a 6″ wide piece that is around 4 inches wider than your half waist msrmt. This is for comfort.

**Hem all the sides of the square pieces you cut out earlier. Then align the square pieces to the 3″ line on your main fabric.

It should look like this aligned. Use pins to secure into place.

**Start sewing from one line all the way down. Stop, raise your needle and pivot your fabric around. Sew 2 stitches, stop, raise your needle and pivot your fabric around and sew back up. Then you stop, raise needle, pivot and sew to the beginning stitch. You will get a beautiful rectangle this way.

**This is what it should look like at the end. Do this to the other square/side as well.

**Now pinch the fabric, and snip a little bit.

**Lay the fabric flat, and continue snipping until you reach the edge.

**This is what it should look like. Yours will be much neater, I’m sure. ;)

**Now stuff the square into the hole. Press/iron into place and then top stitch for neat finish.

**Now sew the front belt piece together. Then turn it right side out. You will have a long tube so press/iron in place.

**For your back belt portion: Sew the pieces together. Turn it right side out. Then take the elastic and thread it through the entire piece. Then sew into place by stretching the elastic as you go.

**Sew ONLY ONE side of your front and back belt together.

**This is what it will look like.

**Thread the sewn portion into one of the belt holes.

**Now sew the other 2 belt sides together.

**And you are done with the belt! This is what the front will look like. The back is with the elastic side.

Sooo I have some more updates for ya’ll. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been knitting/crocheting scarves for the homeless.

Here are some that I’ve made recently:

This is a knitted moss stitch scarf. You cast on an odd amount of stitches and then simply knit, purl until the end of the row. Each row you knit & purl. =]

I was initially making this for a friend, but then very early on I realized this is kind of a guyish scarf, so I decided to donate it instead.

This is a basic garter stitch scarf. (Knit ftw!) I added fringe at the end to make it look extra nice

Moving on to crochet!

This is a bobble stitch scarf.

After making some knitted scarves, I really wanted to make something with crochet. So, that is how this scarf came to be. I youtubed “bobble stitch” and was able to make the scarf after learning how to do the stitch.

That’s all for now, I hope you all have an awesome day!

P.S. I’ll be uploading a followup tutorial to my Butterfly Abaya in which I’ll be explaining in depth how to make the belt. InshaAllah I’ll do this very soon, so stay tuned.

Hey everyone…sooooooooooo I’ve been on a super long self imposed hiatus as you all probably guessed.

I have tons of excuses, but I’ll keep it simple for ya’ll:

1) I was being very lazy to craft anything (hey the summer heat was gettin’ to me!)
2) School started and then I became very busy (for real)
3) My sister is getting married inshaAllah! Wohoo! :)

So anyways, besides all that I finally started working with yarn again! It felt amazing I tell you & I haven’t stopped crocheted/knitting since. I’ve also been experimenting with cooking snacks/appetizers. I really wanted to make Brazilian Cheese Bread aka Pão de queijo…but I didn’t have tapioca flour. I did have all purpose flour so instead, I made Cheese gougère (now don’t ask me to pronounce that).

Here is a pic of the cheesy goodness:

Okay so you can’t see the cheese..sorry about that! I don’t have a pic of the inside ‘cuz they were gone very quickly. Here’s a link to the recipe.

Moving on to the knitting/crocheting! I’ve realized that even though my blog is titled “veiledpurl” I never really posted anything about knitting. Well, that’s about to change now. :)

I’ve recently started to knit scarves & hats to give to the homeless for the cold winter days ahead. This is a project by Muslims Giving Back which is a 100% non profit charity organization.

Here is the first crochet hat I made to give away:
It’s a basic hdc hat with ear flaps that I designed myself.

I then went on to make this knitted scarf. It is 2×2 ribbing.
Sorry it’s not such a good pic! I’ll upload better pics later.

I have lots more to update so stay tuned!
Have a great day everyone =]

Hey guys, I’ve been pretty busy (still am) with Ramadan (alhamdulilah) so I haven’t been able to post anything for the last week or so. But, I finally got the chance to make this dress ^_^. I made this for my niece today, even though I got this fabric a few months ago….I just didn’t know what to do with it. But, anywho, after a bit of thinking and some pattern drafting, The Summer Lovin’ Dress was made! :)

It’s very fast and super easy to stitch up, I started around like 2pm and finished around 4:30-ish.

I didn’t take many pictures as I was cutting/sewing this dress so I’ll be showing most of this tutorial through paper.

Lay out your fabric flat

Fold around 7″ of fabric

Fold this in half…here the 7″ flap should be facing you, (idk y it’s not showing in this picture!)

Fold the half into another half. (Again the 7″ flap should be facing you)

Cut out the bodice pieces. 5″ for the neckline. 2″ for the armhole. The waist measurement +1″ and the full length (I made mine 5″)

You should now have four bodice pieces. (This is what all that crazy folding was for)

Open up your folded fabric once, so now you can make your two straps. Mine were 6.0″ long by 3.0″ wide.

If you want to make flutter sleeves cut out 2 pieces that look like the picture. There should be a straight edge that is 8.0″ long that will be ruffled later, and a rounded edge.

Open up your remaining fabric fully.

Fold it in half once length wise

Fold it in half width wise.

Draw out your circle skirt. For your smaller circle/waist measurement. Measure your little one’s waist subtract that by 4 and divide all this by 6.28. For the longer circle decide how long you want your dress to be. For my niece’s I used 19″

If you want to do a highlow/mullet skirt, fold your circle skirt in half. Cut of 2″ evenly on one side.

Open up your skirt so that the portion you just cut is centered. Now one side is low and the other side is high. Cut the ends a little bit so you remember the center.

Sew up the side seams of the bodice pieces and put this to the side for now.

Take your 8″ straight edge that is rounded and ruffle the 8″ side.

We are going sew the ruffle part to the strap so that the seam is hidden.

So this is your “ruffle edge going inside one of the straps. Wrong side of the strap is facing you.

Pin in place like this and sew. Then turn this inside out and press.

This is what it looks like. Here I thought that the strap looked too wide, so I found the center of the strap and ruffled it up like this:

Top stitch the flutter sleeve in place!

Now we are going to sew together the bodice pieces and the straps.
-Tuck one bodice inside the other so that the right sides are facing each other and the wrong sides are facing you.
-Pin the armholes in place.
-Next, take one of your straps and put it on the edge of the neckline. Right side facing outward, pin in place
-Sew from one armhole to half of the front neckline. Now put in the other strap, continue sewing onto the back.
-Now take one of your straps and twist it into the back neckline, sew in place like you did the others.
-Take the other strap and sew this in place too like the others.

Sorry, that might’ve been a bit confusing, but I don’t have pics of the process. Hopefully that made sense, let me know if you have any qs.

Here I saw that the neckline was a bit too wide, so I ruffled the neckline a bit and pressed and top stitched everything in place. Lastly sew your skirt to your bodice. Hem your skirt, and zig-zag your rough edges (there should only be one rough edge: the skirt portion). And you are done!

I hope you guys found this tutorial useful. If you have any questions let me know, I’ll try my best to answer them.

Like this:

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted. What can I say other than…~”It’s summer time and the livin’ is easy”~

:) For the past two weeks I’ve been in a bit of a sewing stump. (This is partly due to the fact that I’ve been too busy playing ff13 again, and also cuz it’s sooo hot) Anyways, excuses aside I finally got to finishing my niece’s pettiskirt. I started like two weeks ago, and stopped since it was super annoying to make (even more than mine was!) and I’ve been procrastinating ever since. But, I finally decided enough was enough and I finished sewing the pettiskirt today. Boy, did it feel great looking at all its ruffly glory. I also learned a lesson today, procrastination=very bad.

Here are some pictures of the pettiskirt:

My niece absolutely loved it! And I was soo happy to see her being happy. =]

I love the purple and lilac/pink combo :)

(I love this pic)

Pretty ruffles!

For this skirt, I bought 3 yards of purple nylon chiffon, and 2 yards of lilac nylon chiffon. Then I cut the purple into long strips that were 6″ wide, and the lilac into strips 2″ wide. Then came loads of ruffling and sewing, and ruffling and some more sewing. I followed this tutorial.

The annoying part was sewing the ruffles onto the purple chiffon. Why? because of this:

The ruffles went a little really crazy and kept folding upon itself(themselves?) It was a p.a.i.n to unfold the ruffle, then sew, stop sewing, unfold the ruffle, sew etc. >_<

Annoyingness aside, I’m really glad I made this skirt. My niece is happy with it and so am I :)

Like this:

For the past few days I have been obsessing over pettiskirts. I l-o-v-e them, and their fluffiness. They are so girly, frilly, and awesome. So, ofcourse I just had to make myself one…following this awesome tutorial. ;)

I used 7 yards of very soft tulle (my store didn’t have nylon chiffon -.-) for the dark blue and cut them into super long strips that were 9 inches wide. This is a looottt of fabric, I mean a lot. So you’re going to have to cut some a lot of time out for this project. I suggest cutting the 7 yards in half first ‘cuz 7 yards is a lot of fabric to cut all of once, and my floor wasn’t big enough. -le sigh-

Now for the fluffy frillyness I got 4 yards of the same type of tulle and cut ‘em into long strips 2.5″ wide. I also got some satin for the belt. I made mine around 12″ wide…which means in turned out to be around 6″ in the end. All together my skirt is around 24″ long.

That’s half of the ruffled tulle for the project. It get’s a bit overwhelming, so take your time while doing this.

Ruffly goodness!

Pretty ruffles…they kind of look like the ends on jellyfishes :)

My lovely niece’s birthday is coming up, so I’m defo going to be making her one (and many more). I did, however, make her a “practice” one:

It’s poofy, but not as poofy as I’d like it to be…well I only had less 3 yards of fabric to work with..(my mom’s dupatta) And since it was the type of chiffon that frayed, I needed to fold over the edges. This was a p.a.i.n. I’m super glad I ordered some non-fray chiffon(aka nylon chiffon) for her birthday.

I loovvee this abaya a lot, so I thought why not share the love? :) It’s one of the easiest abayas to make, but because of how awesome it looks at the end, people assume it’s hard. The only tough part is that there is a lot of fabric…and I mean a lot of fabric, so that get’s overwhelming a bit a lot. But don’t worry, take deep breaths, be confident, and begin making your butterfly abaya =]

Now as you can see from the pictures I’ve made two different types of abayas(even though there’s 3 pics). The first two are the belted butterfly abayas and the last is the regular/plain one. All of ‘em are pretty awesome so I’ll be showing you guys how to do both inshaAllah.

There’s a bit of math before we start, so here goes:

The amount of fabric you’ll need will be based on your height. Have someone measure you from middle of your shoulder to your feet. If you are for example, 5 ft 4″ the length you’ll need is around 54″. The amount of fabric you’ll need is 54inches x 2=108″ or 3yards. (I suggest getting 3 and 1/4 yards or more.) So the formula is: your full length x two divided by 36 inches. (36 inches =1 yard)

Materials:

-Around 3-4 yards of fabric depending on your height. The width of the fabric must be atleast 58″ or 60″ so remember to ask for this width when buying fabric.

-1/4 yard contrasting fabric, only if you are making the belted abaya.

– 1 inch/2 inch Elastic

-Bias tape or you can also use left over fabric to make your own

-sewing machine and sewing stuff

Measurements:

-Have someone measure you from wrist to wrist, add an inch and a half to this and write this down.

Since there’s a lot of fabric involved I thought it’d be better to show you all how to make this abaya through paper instead of actual fabric.

1) This is just a reference to your fabric when it is laid flat.

2) Fold your fabric length wise. Use pins to secure the ends so that they do not move.

3) Fold your fabric width wise and secure all loose ends with pins. Now you should have two folded sides and two loose end sides.

4) Draw a shape like this on your fabric. (click the pic to make bigger) The width on top is half of your wrist-wrist measurement. Your arm opening should be around 7-8″. (For two of the belted abayas I had to extend the arm since my fabric wasn’t long enough, that’s why you see a different color on the arms.) Don’t worry if isn’t exactly like mine, it’s okay, the awesomeness of this abaya is that it gives you leeway for mistakes (and my abayas are far from perfect)

5) Now make the neckline. The width is 3″ and the depth is 1″. After this, say bismillah and start cutting. If you didn’t leave allowance for your sewing while you drew the shape, it’s okay, because you can just cut 0.5″ outside the lines and it’ll be okay.

6) Open up your entire abaya…it should look like this

7) Fold this in half now, make sure your arms match up. Use pins to stop the fabric from moving. Now measure out a 5.5″ deep neckline and cut away. This will be the front of your abaya.

Now if you are making a plain/regular butterfly abaya, pat yourself on the back, you are basically done cutting, move on to step 16. :) If you are making a belted one move on to the next step.

Belted Butterfly Abaya:

This is the back of the belted abaya. As you can see the back is super loose and you can’t see any belt. Now how do we do this?

8) Measure your waist and divide this by two. This will be the part of the belt that actually shows, the elastic part will be hidden. Now, where you’ve marked your front neckline open your abaya and measure down 15″ from the fold, mark this down by drawing a line all the way across the fabric. Since we want the belt to be centered, find the center of this line, mark that down. Now take your half waist measurement and divide this in half. From the center of the line we just drew, mark your half-half waist measurements on each side. Take a min to decide how wide you want your belt to be. Let’s say 2.75″, so just draw a line 2.75″ on each side.

9) Take scrap fabric, and turn em into squares/rectangles. They should be around 4″ (if you used 2.75″ for your belt)

10) Turn the edges of squares over twice to hem each side. Press/iron in place. Then sew the square pieces to ensure there is no loose threads.

11) Mark 2.75″ on your sewn squares and draw a box. so like 2.75″ x 0.25″.

12) Match the boxes on each of your belt “openings”. pin to place and sew the 2.75″x0.25″ onto the abaya. After sewing it, cut the center, without cutting through the seams. fold your boxes to the inside of the abaya, press into place. Now top stitch to hold everything together. Now you have two holes for your belt!

13) To make the actual belt we need the contrasting fabric. Cut out a front belt half the size of your waist and make it 6″ wide. Then cut out a back belt a few inches more than your actual half waist measurement and make it 6″ wide. Fold each of these pieces so that they are now 3″ wide. Then sew the rough edges together to create two tubes. Turn them right side out and iron in place. Now take some elastic and put in inside the back belt. Sew a little bit, and then start stretching the elastic as you sew until you get to the end of the back belt.

14) Sew one side of the front and back belt pieces together.

15) Put it the belt through one of the holes you’ve made, so that the elastic part is on the inside. Now put the other part of the front belt through the other hole. Sew it onto the other side of the back belt piece. wohoo your belt piece is done!

*16) Sorry I don’t have any pictures for the actual sewing since I can’t sew paper ;) But trust me this part is super easy. You have the option of making the arm not so big…To do this you can take some elastic and make a casing as you hem the arm openings. Here is a tutorial on elastic casings. Just use a thin elastic piece. Or you can go the simpler route, just hem the arm openings w/o an elastic. Done! After this match up the arms together and sew each of the sides down. Then hem the bottom, by turning over the fabric twice. Lastly for your neckline do this with bias tape.

***Overlock/zigzag all the rough edges. Press everything in place.

the black belted butterfly abaya needs some ironing…i was a bit lazy to do so in the heat ;)

You are done! :)

~Few tips: Since there is a lot of fabric, to keep your stitches from stretching don’t let the fabric drag as you sew. When you wear the belted abaya, put the belt of the abaya on first and then the sleeves.

I hope you guys find this tutorial to be helpful. If you have any questions do let me know.

It’s been a while since my last tutorial, so I thought why not make something for my new nephew + make it a DIY.

I used my dad’s old shirt for this and -cough- I didn’t really use “accurate” measurements…let’s say I kind of winged it. In my defense, this is for a newborn so it’s hard to actually measure one. But, you guys should probably measure your little one to ensure best fit. Measure their shoulders, armhole, neckline, chest, and length. Mine came out pretty good w/o measuring tho. – What can I say, I’m really good at winging stuff ;)

Okay since mine is for a newborn, I only had to use the front laps of the shirt. If you are making this for a larger size, you’ll probably need the whole shirt.

**Click pics to make them bigger**

For the front laps click the pics to see the measurements I used. But this is the basic shape you’ll need.

Sew the shoulder seams and the side seams of the pieces together so you should have:

-Woah wt’s that horse doing there??

Anyways, overlap your pieces together so that right side meets right side, and wrong side is out. Sew the pieces together. **Do not sew the armholes together, and leave a 2″ space on the bottom edge of the coat so you can squeeze out your fabric.**

So now squeeze your fabric from the bottom hole and press into place.

Tuck the armhole pieces inward towards each other to hide the frays. Then sew the armhole in place. Be careful not to stretch the armhole while sewing…it’ll look really wonky.

Top stitch everything in place, and you are done! :) You little one can wear it like this….or like this:

Well there you have it folks :) Your very own reversible baby/toddler waistcoat. I hope you all found this tutorial to be helpful, even though I’m sure there are better tutorials out there. Let me know if you have any questions. Have an awesome day everyone!

P.S If you liked this tutorial don’t forget to hit the like/follow/share button.

My sister and I have been painting our room and hallway this past week. It was a lot of work, and super tiring, but the results were awesome…if I do say so myself. It’s safe to say, I’m pretty sick of paint at this point.

Yeah…even though I just said that, my sister invited my niece to finger paint one of my white t-shirts… w/o really asking me. -.-” Here is what they did:

I wasn’t too upset since my niece was really enjoying herself, and I think it’s a pretty good summer activity for kids. All you need is some washable paint and a white t-shirt. Then let your little one have fun!

Here’s a close up on of her hand-prints:

In other news, I sewed two very basic pillows, I think they were 9×12.

And I crocheted this just last night:

I’m hoping to make a bag from this lovely hexagon. :) I’ll post an update when I finish. Here’s a link if you want to make this hexagon.